Saturday, 25 October 2014

It is Saturday 25th October 2014. We are now officially 10 years of age. Damn, that is one long-winded nerdy wig out if ever I saw one. Still sniffin' the fumes, burstin' the blisters and killing the hours in the honor of all things ancient, obsolete and fuzzy.

We share our Aluminum anniversary with our Belfast brethren Slomatics. In praise and salute this limited edition M-13 is adorned with their namesakes. If ever was the sound of the universe to be captured in motion, the death of a star, the collision of stellar bodies, the vast unforgiving beauty of endless nothing, it is solidified in the works of this titanic trio.

10 years past but only one day out of port. The engines are warm now. Headlong into the future. Onwards, always, forever. ~Captain of the ship.

Friday, 1 August 2014

Interesting fact #17 - A blade hasn't touched the skin on my face for over a year. That's a pretty good analogy for what I have been up to with D*A*M. Letting her grow. Fattened in the heat of the sun her fruit are all but ripe. Made the slightest beginnings updating the website. Cut down the old lumber let the fresh shoots burst through. You may note there is now a price list. This applies to the few devices that I shall be selling direct. If you interested in such things read the information presented there.Random highlights of time passed. I constructed several fuzz devices for the legendary deliverer of sonic tidal waves Robert Hampson. If consider yourself a connoisseur of fuzz tones and you know not this name hang your head in shame, leave your house and go a purchase a recording by a band called Loop. FYI - There may or may not production fuzz devices made by myself relating to the aforementioned musical entities.

The might of the Fist grows yet stronger still. A little more flesh and bone added on the EFE section with new dealers welcomed into the fray. New versions of both the Black Acid and the Black Dust will be manifest in due course along with some more interesting custom elements thrown into the mix. We also now have happyfriendface page for EFE for all you (un)cool kids. Like us and send us hate mail.

Lastly, and quite obviously as the first picture posted above shows, Tommy's Guitar Shop custom build leaps into 3 dimensional space. The Grand Magnus Orbiter. An over engineered replica of the fearsome Arbiter Doubler (AKA, it's pretty much a goosed out foXX Tone Machine) Presented in the same bullet proof style as the current Ezekiel model, dual layer tag boards, superior grade components and hardware. Out live me it shall.

All work and more work will make a man out of you...that, or it will kill you. ~Captain of the ship.

Friday, 22 November 2013

The season of doom is all but upon us. The trees are now afire with amber and the cats have ceased fetching me dead presents. It must be Autumn. It's been very productive time for us hence the minimal internet presence, no news is good news, right?

One of my favourite highlights of late was the return of the Meathead, though it never actually went away, it's just that I'd not made any in over two years. Nice to see it in its correct colours too. Seems to make it all the more unsuspecting. A goofy little thing, kinda cute, a little harmless maybe, cute like starving tiger that is. Poof! Open claw versus your head. Oh, I'm sorry did that take your face off. Yeah I like the Meathead, making more them I am.

The Sola Sound Tone Benders have continued their strong and steady march from the castle gates. Making good on supplying freaks with freaky sounds. Finished up on a nice fatty batch of the Professional MKII's this week and making good time on the more limited batches, the El Diablo being one I'm quite fond of off. The collar and cuffs most certainly match in this case, this pedal sounds red.

The Tone Bender theme conditioned over into the D*A*M way of things during September. The first D*A*M Professional MKII's made they way east for the first time in almost three years. Packing Mullard OC82DM's and with the revised 'old school' D*A*M graphics it was a particularly fun project for me to work on. The fine gents at Hoochies in Tokyo did a truly kick ass job of demonstrating the nature of the beast.

The journey east also continued into October time with the first of our EFE boxes heading out that way. A small battalion of the Dope Priest and Lucifer Rising made travel to deliver much sonic enlightenment to the chosen few. The Lucifer's all packing 1960's NOS Newmarket transistors, a single NKT219 and a duo of NKT215's. Again the fine gentlemen at Hoochies doing us proud with an excellent demonstration.

Early November and the Fuzz Sound spilled over into the late #130's. I'm never exactly gonna be able to exactly churn these things out but its steady enough considering the set-up and build time.

The current theme right now is Red Roosters and Meatheads with round II of the Ezekiel 25:17 close behind. Plenty to keep me busy and off the streets at any rate.

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Damn! Feeling hot hot hot. Summers here and the time is right, for fighting in the street? We have some good cruise control on the go here at castle D*A*M. Between myself and Miss Haynes we've rocked out over 100 Tone Benders in these past few months. No small feet. The work of crazy persons. Feels good.

Finally getting the time to shape the mold on the future of D*A*M and the slowly maturing beast that is Emanating Fist Electronics. EFE horror box number III is now realised. Lucifer Rising. The 8th August 1969 in a die-cast aluminium box. Germanium bliss with the standardized EFE heavy duty footprint. Psychedelic saturation to doom ladened meaty flanks and still plenty nuff old school for lovers of the ancient.

The path clearing continues. The last of D*A*M Tone Bender TB-00's have left the building. Strange project was strange. We'll be off loading the remaining TB-02's shortly. Cleaning the slate so to speak. We'll also be welcoming a few old faces back to the table before we get truly fresh. Looks set to be an inserting summer. Sweaty soldering fun with pockets full of germanium.

Lastly, aiming to get some new vibes on the go in regards to the cybernetic side of things. I rarely have the time to maintain those things as I'd like to these days but an important side of things it is. A scrub and clean on that front is coming soon.

Okay, enough. Back to three dimensional space. Whoever and wherever you are, I wish you a mighty and magical summer time.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Help me, Wamba? Well shit damn, it appears as though it is now two thousand and thirteen Anno Domini. Kinda slipped outta the habit of throwing pretty pictures on words up this thing, mainly seeing as three dimensional reality has a little more weight to it, tends to smell better too.

Any huw, needless to say we've been busy little bunnies. The horrible bastard that is Ezekiel 25:17 reared its ugly head once again, definitely not in any kind of mass production sense, but out there some did go, and constructed in manner I found most pleasing.

Still chugging along with the Fuzz Sounds, not exactly gaining pace output wise but happening they are, FYI - I just topped unit #123.

I've now gone back to making all the small box units myself, I am only making these to order so it fits in as a nice balance and change of pace to building Tone Benders, Fuzz Sounds and the like. I've already made some greasy tweaks to the Super Bee, which now sports the designation SB-67. One more number one more transistor. Lucky 13.

Miss Haynes started out the year with laying Emanating Fist boxes out on the street. The Dope Priest seems to be earning some righteous street cred which is a pretty sweet deal as we are just about to begin version 2. No real circuit changes, just an improved circuit board layout. Basically it makes our lives easier so you dirty dope fiends get noise makers in a more agreeable time frame. Linz is pretty on it with the Tone Bender vibe right. We just started MKIV batch two, and in a right on the money authentic colour scheme too boot. She also dabbled in the vintage horror of the MKI recently and made a small batch of those saturated beasts.

In the works. It's gonna be Tone Bender MKII par-tay time this year, just gearing up for batch #3. 413 and counting. We have a new EFE effector in the works that should be of interest to those with an obsession with the atomic number 32. Plenty of other little seedy projects simmering away, I could tell you...but then I'd have to kill you.

Sunday, 30 December 2012

Broken internets is broken. Just a wee heads up. Apparently, it seems that some of our hosting company's employees have now taken to doing hot knives and beer bongs in work hours rather than informing their paying customers of what is actually happing, which is maybe why the forum has been off-line for the past 3 days. The issue is server related and will be resolved as soon as possible.The website is still up and running and so are my mail boxes so I can still be contacted should anyone need any assistance.

Friday, 21 September 2012

Hail! September once again and the first day of Mabon to boot.The fuzzy fruits we're being casting forth into world have been of various shapes and sizes of late. Linz completed her second project for Sola Sound by making some pretty damn sick Tone Bender MKIV's. Pretty radical looks inside and out. Packing an unhealthy trio of NKT OC84's that add-on the midrange fat in a mightily substantial way.More grease & dirt have been hitting the streets too courtesy of the GB-83 and FR-70's. Living it large from London to Seattle. A colour for every season? Taste the rainbow of fruit flavours?

August/September also saw the realization that is Emanating Fist Electronics. Heavy duty sounds for the heavy duty. No nonsense, no bullshit, in your face effectors. Manifest in 3D space by yours truly and constructed by our new soldering iron wielding dude, Greg. The EFE pedals are made with PCB circuit boards and a simpler approach to internal construction but yield nothing short of a gloriously beautiful horror show in the fuzz-tone department.

Aside from full-on design and organization sessions these past months I've been getting more of the Tone Benders MKI.5's out to planet Sola Sound and slowly beginning to dip my toe in the small batch custom built waters yet again. It's kinda weird to refer to it as custom built as all out stuff could and can be considered custom built but I'm trying to zone in on the smaller batch more intensive sessions. Something I intend to make a little more obvious come 2013.